Sunset Along the Colorado River

The Colorado River runs right by the Travel Camp just across the road from we are staying at so we decided to take our dog, Nanook there for a walk. We love to walk in the evening right before sunset for two reasons. One it is cooler and two the sunsets are usually spectacular.

 It is so pretty with the sun setting behind the mountains...

 ...and the river in the foreground.

I could have taken so many more photos but decided to hold back on the photos and just soak in all the beauty of  the desert.

 



Imperial Dam

I am trying to get caught up on my postings now that I have a computer to use.
We took a drive to Imperial Dam which is not far from the Travel Camp we are staying at. There is also a state park there and we were able  to let Nanook off the leash and run around and explore the park since  no one was around.

 The dam is on the Colorado River and it is really pretty scenery in this area especially when the sun is going down.

 The cloud formations and colors were beautiful.

 The river is pretty wide here at the dam.

 This was taken from the park.

 The water from the dam goes into different channels and directed into canals. The water from the canals are what the farmers use to water their crops here in the desert.

 You can kind of get an idea how wide the river is in this photo.

 Another beautiful gorgeous sunset to end the day.

 Nanook wanted to get in the water to swim after the ducks.

 In this photo you can see the water going into a canel.

We weren't sure if the tracks in the clouds were made from airplanes or not because they are so much wider than what they usually are.



Living in the Desert

Wayne & I found ourselves in the desert near Yuma, Arizona in November and we are loving it! We are really enjoying retirement and as the Snowbirds say "Home is where we park it."

 Here is Wayne relaxing in front of our "home" with our dog, Nanook.

Our lot is the second from the end on the left row of trailers (where the green truck is). I took this from the outside of the Travel Camp.

Here it is with Wayne's racing lights on the canopy.

This is the backside of our trailer. We bought a flagpole so we could fly the American flag and Wayne wants to add a Coast Guard flag below it in the near future.

 We enjoy watching the sunset each night from our trailer. Every night the sunset is a spectacular show of colors.



This is one of my favorite sunsets that I have captured with the camera. I will be sharing some more sunsets a little later.

Holiday Happenings

Just thought I would post some of our Christmas photos while I have the chance. We are staying with our daughter in Flagstaff this Christmas and our having a good time here with her.

 As you can see we enjoyed a white Christmas here in the high desert. I took Nanook for a walk and the sun was trying to come out.

 It was snowing and blowing... hard to smile for the camera!

 Can see the mountains with a short walk from our daughters apartment.

  The sun finally made an appearance!

Snow makes everything so pretty even if it is cold outside.

This is Amber's Charlie Brown tree that I gave her for her first Christmas in college.

She accidental broke the original ornament and had to replace it with this sparkly one.

 Amber and I made sugar cookies Christmas Day! It was great to be able to do it together again.

Last Christmas Amber wasn't able to make it home because she had to work. It was very depressing for her to be alone for Christmas. She made cookies by herself last year so she was so happy for us to be able to do this family tradition together again.

 Our Christmas Dinner. Amber and I made our simple Christmas dinner together after we finished the cookies.

We had a spiral cut ham that was oh so good.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!

 

Teresa



Happy December

Gosh, I can't believe it is Dec already! The year has flown by so quickly. I hope everyone is enjoying all of their Christmas traditions and or enjoying making new ones. 
I am so excited that we made our Christmas cards, newsletter and had them all mailed by the end of Nov!! I hope that is a new tradition for us. Before I always tried hard to get at least all the out of state ones mailed by my birthday (the 17th). So now you know why I'm so excited to be ahead of the game this year. We are so much more relaxed and can enjoy all the holiday festivities.

My husband has planned a trip to Vegas for my birthday so I am looking forward to seeing the hotels  decorated in all of their Christmas splendor. Last year we were there for Thanksgiving and it was so gorgeous then. And of course we will be taking in a show as well.

I am sad to say that it looks like I will not be able to post pictures on my blog for awhile :(. I know how fun is that!  So anyway our Internet is not working at all and all the help or hints tell you to go somewhere on the Internet to find the problem but how is that going to help when you can't access the Internet! So Frustrating!

Wishing all of my readers many wonderful holiday memories during this Christmas season!

Teresa

Day 8 ,9 & 10

Day Eight was a day of travel...from Moab, Utah to Flagstaff, AZ which was our second destination and one that I was anxious to reach as we would be seeing our daughter, Amber.
On the drive to Flag I snapped a few photos along the way. That's what I like to do when I get bored with the drive :

 I have no idea what the "hole in the rock" is. I didn't see any hole.

 Can't remember the name of this arch. It was right along side the highway. Sorry about the glare from the truck's window.

Water in the middle of the desert is always a welcome sight.

 A cool looking rock formation in the middle of nowhere.

 A close up of that cool rock formation.

We finally arrived at our campground in Flagstaff and thoroughly enjoyed our three days there. We had actually planned to stay only two but Amber wanted us to stay an extra day.

She showed us the new gym that they finished last year at NAU. It is very nice (Now we know why tuition went up).

She took us up to Snowbowl. The Aspens were so pretty even without most of their leaves. The first time Amber took us up the mountain there was snow. This time Snowbowl was in its fall finery.

 It was a perfect fall day and we all wished we could have stayed up there all day.

 Wayne, Amber and Nanook on the trail.

 Nanook enjoying some freedom off the leash.

 One happy dirty dog!



 Weather was gorgeous all three days we were in Flag. The first day it was 75 degrees but boy did we get a surprise the first night.  I woke up around 3:00 in the morning. I was warm under the flannel sheets and thinking how glad I was to have them. But I noticed my face felt colder than it had the entire trip so I woke Wayne up  and told him that it felt colder than  usual and maybe he should check the water hose. Of course he grumbled that it wasn't any colder but got up anyway. Sure enough the water hose was frozen solid. He brought it in to the shower to thaw and turned the heater up a bit. As it turned out it got down to 25 degrees that night! A fifty degrees difference from the day.
Oh, the adventures we have camping!

Autumn Blessings

Two more Thanksgiving cards to share with you today!

This one was inspired by a leftover scrap from the previous card I made yesterday:

 

I used the frame that was left over, ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Swiss Dot EF added a couple of stamped images and the banner with the sentiment. I stamped the quote and the three acorn image onto cardstock and placed it behind the frame. Once I adhered the embellished frame to the background cardstock I was done.

I used the same cardstock, stamp set and inks as I did on yesterdays card except I inked all the edges on this card with Walnut Stain Distress ink.

 

My second card is again made with the Linen Closet Matstack from DCWV and the same stamp set and inks. I did use a sketch from http://deconstructingjen.com/archives/6980. 

Here is sketch #78 that I used:

 

 This card was a little challenging since I didn't have a circle big enough so I had to raid my kitchen cabinets and finally found a small bowl that was perfect. Also I had to cut the circle by hand but I think it came out OK. I almost didn't add the small partial circle at the upper right corner but decided to go ahead and add it. I thought it looked too plain  so I stamped the acorn in it. Not sure if it makes the card seem a bit unbalanced. Maybe I will like it better after it sits for a while. Do you ever have that happen when your finished with a card and you just aren't that happy with it then you come back to it later and find that it isn't that bad after all?

Again this card was made with the same supplies as the other two. This time I forgot to ink some of the edges with distress ink. I think it would have looked better with all the edges inked but they were already adhered down.

I even did some stamping on the front and back of the envelopes. Now I need to get the cards ready for the mail first thing in the morning! Although I am sure they will get there day after but hey it's the thought that counts right?

Have a Happy Sunday!

Teresa

 

 



...Watch the Leaves Turn

Finally a card!!  Even though it was a quick one it feels good to be creating again.

For this I used this sketch from Cardabilities:



You can find the details for this sketch here Cardabilities #63 .

 Every piece of paper except for the background pattern paper cardstock is all scraps and all the paper is from DCWV Linen Closet Matstack.

The only embellishment I used were the gold pearls.

The stamps are Inkadinkadoo Autumn Harvest. I used two stamps but I laid them out how I wanted them then laid the acyrlic block down on top of the stamps so I only had to stamp once.I used VersaMark Watermark ink first then inked it with Timber Brown Staz On ink. I like using Versa Mark Water Mark ink with Staz On inks and Distress inks. I seem to get better coverage and I can heat emboss even using quick drying inks like Staz On.

 

It's getting late and the dog needs his last walk for the day so I better get going.

Thanks so much for stopping by!